A writer is not a jukebox

Like others, I chose not to attend a literary festival that I believe was part of the state's attempt to suggest that all is normal in Kashmir.

A few days back, the Harud Literary Festival, which was due to take place in Srinagar from September 21 to 24, was cancelled amid great controversy. The event was to be held on the campus of Delhi Public School located outside Srinagar, next to the biggest military camp in Kashmir, the Badami Bagh cantonment. Vijay Dhar, who owns the school, was the main sponsor of the Harud festival. A businessman with strong Congress Party connections, he was an adviser to Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s. Recently, Mr. Dhar was cheerleading the Indian Army's “normalcy drive” in Kashmir by hosting an army-sponsored and organised cricket tournament, the Kashmir Premier League, on the grounds of his school.

Before the Harud was talked about in the press, I had conveyed my apprehensions to the organisers — the novelist and festival producer Namita Gokhale and her partners, Teamwork Productions headed by Sanjoy Roy and Sheuli Sethi — and suggested holding the festival independently, without any political connections. They chose otherwise. It thus became impossible for me, as an independent writer, to be part of such an event. If I had decided to attend the festival, given the obvious political connections of Harud's lead sponsor, then tomorrow I would not be able to say no to an event funded by people connected to other political establishments and ideologies. This was the same reason I stayed away, despite several invitations, from the conferences organised by Ghulam Nabi Fai, the Kashmiri-American lobbyist who turned out to be on the payroll of Pakistan's Inter Services Agency.

The Harud organisers also included a day of seminars and talks at Kashmir University in the festival, and found another sponsor: Jyotsna Singh, the grand-daughter of the repressive pre-1947 ruler of Kashmir, Hari Singh.

Ms Singh's wealth is her inheritance and the forced labour of my ancestors did contribute a bit to the wealth of the Kashmir's erstwhile ruling dynasty. This small piece of historical knowledge seemed to have been ignored by the organisers, but I do remember that my ancestors, who worked as landless tillers as the Maharaja owned all the land, would hide some grains of rice in pullehores, shoes made of hay stalks, and empty them at home where those grains of rice and some vegetables would contribute to keeping alive starving families. I would desecrate the memory of all those Kashmiris who were forced to live on half-empty stomachs — who toiled without reward for their blood and sweat, and those countless, nameless ones who died of exhaustion after long days of forced labour — by joining an event sponsored with the wealth accumulated from such exploitation.

In essence, by choosing the kind of sponsors they have, the organisers of the Harud festival forced me and fellow writer, Waheed Mirza, author of the novel, The Collaborator, to stay away. Unfortunately, the mainstream media was not interested in our objections. The Times of India described Harud as making Kashmir “turn a leaf”, as if the festival was bringing civilization to the State. The Hindu's Srinagar correspondent, Shujaat Bukhari, asserted that “the objections raised by New York-based author of Curfewed Night, Basharat Peer, and London-based Mirza Waheed ... have cast a shadow over the festival being organised in response to the Kashmiri people's desire for such an event.” Waheed and I chose, as individual writers, not to participate, but I wonder on what basis Mr. Bukhari made the assertion that the festival was being “organised in response to the Kashmiri people's desire for such an event.” Had India and Pakistan agreed to a U.N.-supervised referendum over the Harud literary festival, had the people of Kashmir voted overwhelmingly in favour of the festival? Writers are not jukeboxes. If a group of individuals have the freedom to organise an event and invite a writer, a writer has the freedom to choose to accept or reject an invitation.

We did write an open letter raising political questions, along with several other journalists, academics, and writers, and it was posted on the blog, Kafila.org, giving others the option to sign it if they wished. After describing the situation in the State, our letter said: “We fear, therefore, that holding such a festival would, willy-nilly, dovetail with the state's concerted attempt to portray that all is normal in Kashmir. Even as the reality on the ground is one of utter abnormality and a state of acute militarisation and suppression of dissent, rights and freedoms”. We added that we would “firmly support the idea of a literary/artistic festival in Kashmir if we were convinced that its organising was wholly free from state interference and designs, and was not meant to give legitimacy to a brutal, repressive regime.”

A few days later, the Harud organisers called off the festival citing threats of violence and a movement to boycott the festival. “A few people who began the movement to boycott the festival have no qualms in [sic] speaking on and about Kashmir across international forums, but have refused to allow other voices, including writers, poets and theatre people from the Valley and across India to enjoy the right to express themselves at the Harud festival,” the statement announcing the cancellation alleged.

This statement essentially implies that Mirza Waheed and I, who have spoken and written across the world about Kashmir, are censors throttling other writers, poets, and theatre people from expressing themselves. This is completely untrue. We did not attempt to persuade anyone who wanted to attend Harud from not attending. We didn't call for a boycott of the festival. Our Open Letter, in fact ended on the following note: “This letter is an attempt to state our position and to urge the festival participants to ponder some of these issues and concerns.” All we did was to make and state our decision to stay away. The decision to cancel the festival was not ours, but that of the organisers.

It has also been said that our opposition to the festival has denied young Kashmiris a chance to interact with several visiting authors. Let this be clear: Young Kashmiris don't depend on a glance or a hasty chat with a visiting author to understand the mechanics of writing. An intense conversation about the craft and politics of writing has been going on, away from the glare of the press and frenzy of social media, in many rooms in Kashmir. The journalist Muzamil Jaleel has been running a writers' workshop every Sunday from his living room for several years now, where scores of young Kashmiri boys and girls discuss their writing and read the best and the brightest of fiction and non-fiction writers. It is a room I have visited on several Sundays to talk to Muzamil's students.

In my parents' house, in coffee shops in Srinagar, in online chats and emails, that process continues. When I was a 21-year-old struggling to learn to write, a writer friend told me what to read and how to read. Many of us who signed the open letter critiquing the Harud festival have been passing on the torch, editing short stories, reading personal essays, bringing graphic novels and tomes of fiction and non-fiction for the boys and girls who are growing up to tell the story of Kashmir and the stories of places and ideas beyond Kashmir. It is in those quiet and committed engagements spanning years that Kashmir's writers are being made, not by pitching a few shamiyanas.

They are not desperate for an autograph; they are reading, thinking, writing in the solitude of their rooms. They won't be seeking crumbs at a table, they won't mortgage their souls to government cultural academies and Doordarshan Kashmir, they won't go begging at the doors of DAVP offices in Delhi. The strength of their work will tear open the gates.

Basharat, I dont understand why you should have a problem with someone trying to organize a cricket tournament, literature festival etc n try to get normalcy back to J&K.
It is people like you who are in safe confines of living abroad who are detached from reality. Also your comparison of grand daughter is unfair. by that yardstick, every muslim ruler's children should be tracked down and punished agreed, you are a famous writer, but your reasoning is illogical.

from:
Danish

Posted on: Sep 12, 2011 at 17:48 IST

Mr.Mustaq
Mr. Even if your conclusion about his( mr. Peer ) affilation with Pakistan were true
no body thinks there is normalcy of Military or Politics today.

from:
AzadSingh

Posted on: Sep 11, 2011 at 18:59 IST

Basharat Peer sure doesnt believe in letting bygones be bygones. He has a problem with a lady sponsoring an event because her great great grand father apparently exploited his great great grandfather. wow. He doesnt seem very different then from hindu right wingers in the rest of the country who still blame muslims for what Aurangzeb did centuries ago.

from:
Akshay

Posted on: Sep 11, 2011 at 00:54 IST

To those who contradict......Anything worth doing is worth doing well..>If you can't appreciate it, you don't deserve it. ...My grandma has told me about the unpaid land tillers ..."Hiding some grains of rice in pullehores, shoes made of hay stalks, and empty them at home where those grains of rice and some vegetables would contribute to keeping alive starving families".
One may have a comment on Basharat but for the Peer sahab You cant, without knowing his talent, hard work and Hunt for Knowledge... "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

from:
huma

Posted on: Sep 10, 2011 at 21:53 IST

The problem with Kashmiris is that we change like chameleons as and when required.SOS! Same is true for Mr. Basharat. When it was OK to go to the Jaipur festival, why boycott the Harud one. People like him can go to any extent for proving a point, albeit wrong. Its really sad and unfortunate that a handful of people deciding for the majority whether we want the fest or not.

from:
Rubina

Posted on: Sep 10, 2011 at 13:36 IST

Moral:- the writer would have supported and joined the "haurud" festival .if it has been organised by the common kashmir pandits like Dr.T K Koul.. I am unable to understand the reason why these type of festivals are being organised by the people who have never contributed to kashmir on humanitarian grounds.(vijay dhar supported in terms of bussiness to all delhi based teachers and earning handsomely from kashmir). To all people like irfan khan et al.these are personal views of the >writer and no one should object..";'that is what we call democracy"

from:
Mohammad Junaid mir

Posted on: Sep 9, 2011 at 22:48 IST

Mr Gul, there is everything hypocritical about it. It is about principles, not a person. The question how his father managed money for his education in Columbia University, etc. is very relevant. Isn't that the same money which was paid by government of India to him, and other sources? Didn't his father sign arrest warrants, slap PSAs as DC on youth of Kashmir? Isn't that injustice? Worse, Basharat in his article has termed Dr Fai as ISI agent. And what the hell is Basharat doing with an American thinktank which promotes decimation of Muslims? Is the massarce of 2 million Iraqis, invasions and suppression of Muslims throughout the world no injustice to Basharat? Is Israeli repression of Palestinains no injustice to him just because he is paid by an Israeli lobby magazine? US Ambassador to India's frequent visits to Delhi Public School mean nothing to him? It is fashionable these days to sound holy. But he has to display personal integrity and principles for that first.

from:
Irfan Khan

Posted on: Sep 9, 2011 at 20:24 IST

Basharat made a right decision but possibly cites wrong reasons for it. He has and shall continue to have his right to dissent in this part of the world, which is more than what he would have in almost all the countries to the West of this land right upto the Western parts of North Africa. So Basharat Peer, your reasons are your reasons which need not have been the reason for some, even if it was a minority of only one, to have entertained the idea of holding the festival.
Also, Basharat Peer, a chronic dissenter soon turns into a chronic pain, unless he engages with the problem and seeks to contribute answers to all the questions. Do you have some answers? Do you want (the rest of, if I may) India to not hear the voices that you say exist in a vibrant though small community of writers in Kashmir? You want these voices to remain within and not reach out to those who are willing to listen and perhaps share but are denied by the voluntary or involuntary censorship your ilk impose?

from:
Madhukar

Posted on: Sep 9, 2011 at 20:10 IST

Well argued, some will say. But I prefer my writers with a bit of courage and imagination. Why not do something along the lines of Marukami Haruki, when he accepted a literary prize in Israel -- despite heated criticism that this amounted to legitimizing Israel's occupation of the Palestinian homeland -- only to give his famous speech, "“Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.” I submit that this speech did more good for the Palestinian cause than one hundred "The Writer is not a Jukebox" essays will ever do for Kashmiri who want the right to self-determination.

from:
Bruce Humes

Posted on: Sep 9, 2011 at 11:23 IST

I must admit that i have all the respect for Peer but m not convinced with the logic he puts forward. going by his logic it is impossible to hold any event anywhere in the whole world and i underline whole world. All societies, places at sometime or the other has gone thru some kind of atrocities and there was always some oppressors and large no. of oppressed.So how do you go about it. I would have preferred joining that event and then putting forward my point of view. I really don't understand that how alienating ourselves will solve our problem. I understand that things are not normal yet but how do you come to conclusion that any kind of event symbolizes normalcy. I mean the best songs are sung on battle fields and in not so happy times. Ya we all agree to one thing that we all hate politicians don't we. My suggestion would be lets dont hate them but make them work, we are just turning them stupid by our attitude.

from:
Rohin

Posted on: Sep 9, 2011 at 11:01 IST

Mr Irfan Khan, I am sorry i don't agree with even a single bit of yours. Basharat would have been funded by his father and mother for his studies as do other parents for their children. What is hypocritical about that? Second, Basharat got a job with a national daily here and fellowship at US for that he deserves it. You wont see every Tom, Dick and Harry graduating from Columbia Mass Communication hub. Moreover, I am sure that his father does not have influence at Delhi, not to speak at US. Basharat's father is a top bureaucrat in the state, his mother is a teacher, grandfather has been a headmaster and ya everyone knows their wealth. They still live in their ancestral house that obviously is not palatial. Hope u dont deny that. And everyone in the country and outside knows about Curfewed Night. May you plz know that his father was not even knowing that his son has left a job for writing a book. I hope you understand what a jobless fellow means in Kashmir.

from:
M. Khalid Gul

Posted on: Sep 9, 2011 at 01:59 IST

Great job done. Atleast, here comes a kashmiri view what a kashmiri think about these lit. festivals which project so called normalcy in the valley. Calm and silence dont mean normalcy, this is all enforced silence and we all, being sons and daughters of this soil, should unmask the real consperacies behind these lit. festivals.

from:
Asma Khan

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 23:58 IST

Shri Peer writes: "An intense conversation about the craft and politics of writing has been going on... in many rooms in Kashmir. The journalist Muzamil Jaleel has been running a writers' workshop every Sunday from his living room for several years now, where scores of young Kashmiri boys and girls discuss their writing and read the best and the brightest of fiction and non-fiction writers. It is a room I have visited on several Sundays to talk to Muzamil's students."
Why is the brutal, repressive regime, with its "acute militarisation and suppression of dissent, rights and freedoms" not brutally repressing these meetings, I wonder?

from:
Mihir

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 22:25 IST

Basharat appears off colour, off balance in what I see a response to Rahul Pandita whose writing was more rationale, saner and troubling to those who trade Kashmir strife for their gains.

from:
Riyaz Bashir

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 21:41 IST

The Organizers of Harud made a vain attempt to spread venom against right thinking Kashmiris who have been championing the cause of freedom of expression and restoration of civil liberties. How many so called intellectual and creative writers protested against worst type of human rights violations in Kashmir? How many of them declined to receive state awards by way of protest against dehuanizing a common Kashmiri? How many of them raised voice against the Govt decision to confer Padam Vibushan on Muma Kana - the notorious Ikhwani responsible for killing hundreds of innocent men and looted forest wealth worth crores of rupees? How many of the so called literary giants have written about unmarked mass graves? How many of them ever bothered to highlight the pain and agony of rape victims? Bashat Peer and Wahid Mirza have obviously preferred to stay way from such Tamashas as a mark of respect to tens of thousnads of Kashmiris brutalised every day. Three cheers for Peer and Wahid

from:
Bashir Ahmad Dra

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 20:35 IST

Agree that the idea of normalcy in a time of repression is problematic. But the cancellation of the event doesn't help anything. To the organizer: I don't understand why you didn't go through with the Fest; can no event take place there without the sanction of Peer et al? To those who opposed it--It would've been more productive for Basharat and his colleagues' cause if they had organized an alternative space in Kashmir or even in the capital, with openly oppositional content in response to Harud. Didn't intend to go hominem, but I AM curious about Peer's work--how does Foreign Affairs advance justice and freedom, sir? It is a US hegemony advancing, Israel loving magazine that you edit. I bet that the pay and perks are wonderful. though. maybe 'representing' the Kashmiri voice means you can also sleep at night without regret.

from:
Rohit

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 20:23 IST

I agree with Irfan Khan. Basharat ought to follow some principles before writing such stuff - which raises a big question mark on his 'intellectual acumen' and commitment to a free world, where sharing of ideas is ought to be done in a civilised fashion. The question which money did Basharat Peer use for his education and his fellowship studies in the US cannot be skirted. Are there different principles for that? His arguments look rogue and very unbecoming of a writer supposed to promote free ideas in the Muslim world while working here and paid at Open Society Institute of New York.

from:
Michael

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 19:55 IST

Mr Irfan Khan, there is nothing hypocritical about Basharat. I don't know about his antecedents but I really appreciate the work which he has been doing in bringing the plight of the Kashmiris to the fore at the world stage. One needs to get good education, exposure and of course fame so that his writings are taken seriously. Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru are prime examples of this. They obtained their degrees in London but didn't give up the fight against British Imperialism. So your logic in that sense about Basharat peer is plain ridiculous and also the reason why Kashmiri people like the Kashmiri leaders can't forge a single, unanimous opinion or resolution about the Kashmir issue because we are too busy in bickering and mud-slinging.

from:
Misbah

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 18:46 IST

Vjay Dhar might have political connections but I don't think Hari singh's grand daughter is in anyway responsible for the attrocities commmitted by her ancestors. Even Dr Karan Singh's lineage who is a scholar of repute is enough fr getting this event sponsored by hr daughter. Peer saab, it is only narrow mindedness.

from:
Shabir Bhat

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 16:26 IST

Thank God that we still have writers like you who are there to tell us the true situations and events that had happened, else the organisers and their sponsors would have mislead us as they have always done. Certainly, the Kashmiri writers(and people) are very rich in their heritage and culture and they are the ones from whom budding writes in India should seek inspiration from.

from:
Ravi Goyal

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 15:45 IST

Dare To Dissent-A highly apprecible and couragious piece from an acclaimed writer, from the son of the soil.

from:
Afroz

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 15:01 IST

It is so hypocritical. May I ask who paid for Bashar's education in Kashmir and abroad? He paid for his lavish lifestyle? Basharat got his job with a leading national daily and fellowship of a New York thinktank because his father used his infuence. It is so wellknown in Kashmir. Why didn't Basharat have problems with that? Basharat's father is a IAS officer/civil servant whose wealth is wellknown here in his hometown. His book shot to limelight not because of its literary merit because he targeted separatists in it and he and his father sold that line in many sections within and outside the country. Now the thinktank he works for in US promotes justice?

from:
Irfan Khan

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 14:30 IST

Thanks a lot for this wonderful and thought-provoking masterpiece.Hosting such a lit fest by govt. sponsored agencies is just an eyewash; claiming that everything is normal in Kashmir. How can it be APOLOTICAL when our freedom to question the gross human Rights violation by indian troops has already been strangulated? where were these so called sponsors of this lit Fest when common kashmirs were brutally massacred? In short, The Problem with Indian Democracy is that it can Mean anything; You want it to Mean..

from:
Sabir Bhat

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 13:41 IST

Mr Kumar Rakesh, I think you should go through the article once again. The author has given his own personal reasons why he was not attend happy with the organization of the festival and I think he has written it as an common citizen of Kashmir: not as an international author. He does not preach people not to attend the festival. I believe Peer has rightly suggested that festivals like these should be free from any special political party's or person's influence. And for your kind information: In Kashmir, the descendants of the criminal ancestors are still on the wrong side of the history.

from:
Waseem Ahad

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 13:40 IST

Do these kinds of rhetorics make any good for the people? A am stunned by the writings of these "humanist" writers..they only talk about Kashmir..never any discussion of Laddakh, Jammu, or Pak occupied Kashmir, or territory handed over to China by Pakistan. Every kind of "state sponsored" oppression is carried out only in Indian Kashmir...all other areas are well governed peaceful places. Even these "independent" authors have no problem in taking asylum/citizenship of countries (US/UK)who are responsible for waging war and killing millions of people from Vietnam, South America, Iraq to Afganistan! They are only the voice of "Kashmir". Millions of people who have been ruled by Hindu and Muslim kings outside "Kashmir" has no dissent with the ruling class! Only Kashmir's have issues with their Kings. Enlightened luxury seeking souls of the great land. Hats off to them.

from:
Aseem

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 13:23 IST

Maybe it's my own class bias, but I don't find it absurd that Mr Peer would object to 'joining an event sponsored with the wealth accumulated from such exploitation.' People may not be responsible for their ancestors' behaviour, but they do have a responsibility to acknowledge it. Today's Germans are not responsible for Hitler, but acknowledging collective guilt is the best way not to repeat it.

from:
Stella

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 13:23 IST

Basharat Peer, shouldn't you stay away from the Jaipur Literature Festival, which is funded by the Public Diplomacy division of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India with the idea of showing that India is a great, tolerant democracy where there are no human rights violations? Why do you go there year after year?

from:
Yasin

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 13:06 IST

Was waiting for your response Basharat and it has come the way I expected it to. I am sure the strength of the words will already be tearing open the gates. As far as journalists of Bukhari's clan are concerned, they hardly matter as long as our new generation of writers doesn't "mortgage their souls" to the state and its yes-men. Bravo to you.

from:
Ab Ahad

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 11:40 IST

Good reply, Stay blessed

from:
Faisal Khan

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 10:27 IST

He has made some valid points but an absurd argument of his looms over them. "Singh's wealth is her inheritance and the forced labour of my ancestors did contribute a bit to the wealth of the Kashmir's erstwhile ruling dynasty," he says to support his decision of boycotting the event as Singh was one of its sponsors. I wonder how she is responsible for the sins of her ancestors and does it imply that the progenies of Aurangzeb and many tyrant Muslim kings should be tracked and held responsible for their cruelties to their Hindu subjects? Ridiculous.

from:
Kumar Rakesh

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 10:26 IST

excellent piece and befitting response Basharat sir...

from:
mudasir

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 09:22 IST

Nice attempt by Peer to hide his Pro-Pakistan attitude! If someone is supporting Indian Army's Normalcy Drive then what is the problem?

from:
P Pandey

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 09:08 IST

Hats of to you Kashmiri journalists for speaking your heart. Let truth prevail.

from:
mushtaq

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 08:16 IST

Your opinion represents our will. Thank you for not participating in the festival.

from:
Aasif Amin

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 08:10 IST

As usual, Basharat Peer makes his point cogently. Well said. If I had read this earlier, I would have signed the open letter too!

from:
Pamposh Dhar

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 03:49 IST

Finally, Basharat comes to the front and sets the record straight. Again, for the majority, as it seems "Harud" will remain a season or at most manifest itself as a film by Aamir Bashir, but never shall any Kashmiri ever recognize it as a literary festival which takes into consideration the pillars of Kashmiri culture from any context, whether non-political or otherwise.

from:
Amjad

Posted on: Sep 8, 2011 at 03:10 IST

Petty and vengeful vitriol in garb of so called independent and open thought process. I am surprised that Hindu editors didn't read the part where you say that you distanced yourself from the literary festival (among other reasons) for one of the sponsors is grand-daughter of Hari Singh (and the typical fundamentalist wahhabi stirring of the hornet's nest about half empty stomach's)? What kind of pure unadulterated rhetoric is that? Now Kashmiri Pandits should distance themselves from the lit-fest because they were driven out of the valley becuase of a few misguided fellow Muslims ? What kind of inverted pyramid of logic will that be ? Petty thinking and utter philistine opining. Rise above your own selfish ends.